The Liberal Democrats are gathering for the next few days in Brighton for their annual conference, which comes on the heels of winning a stunning 72 seats at the general election.
Party leader Sir Ed Davey is calling for a £9.4bn increase in spending on the NHS at the budget in October – and we ask why he is not calling for more, given the needs laid out in the Darzi report last week.
He replies that the programme they put forward during the election was “the most ambitious programme put to the British people for our NHS and care system” and is “one of the main reasons” they got such a great result at the election.
“What I want to do in this parliament is, yes, be the champion of the NHS and care. And I want to make sure that as we put forward our ideas, we repay the trust that the electorate put in us.”
Asked why he isn’t calling for reform of the health service, he replies that he very much supports it.
But in reference to the PM saying he won’t put more money into the NHS without deep reforms, he replies: “We’re worried that the government’s just talking about reform before investment. And I don’t think the NHS can withstand that approach.”
He says a lot of money has been “spent in the wrong place” of late and criticised the Conservatives for having “got it so badly wrong”.
Leave a Reply